Window, door manufacturer to build $120M facility in Winn Parish

JELD-WEN Inc., one of the world’s leading manufacturers of windows and doors, will open a $120 million production facility in Winn Parish by the end of 2012, Gov. Bobby Jindal and JELD-WEN President Philip Orsino announced today. The project is expected to create a minimum of 75 new direct jobs, with an annual payroll exceeding $2.5 million, and will result in an additional 117 new indirect jobs. Originally announced in late 2006, JELD-WEN placed the project on hiatus in 2007 due to market issues. Louisiana Economic Development has since worked with the company to provide a comprehensive workforce solution to encourage the completion of the project. LED will provide resources from its FastStart workforce development program as JELD-WEN begins hiring in the coming months. The state also secured the project by providing a performance-based, $750,000 Economic Development Award Program grant for site infrastructure, and JELD-WEN is expected to utilize Louisiana’s Quality Jobs and Industrial Tax Exemption Program incentives. The state also assisted Winn Parish and the company in securing an $899,000 federal Community Development Block Grant for sewer and water infrastructure development, and a $1.5 million U.S. Economic Development Administration grant to defray the costs of providing electrical service to the site. Located between Winnfield and Jonesboro, the facility will manufacture wood fiber door-facings using a proprietary process. “This plant will be the most technologically advanced molded door-facings plant in the world,” says Orsino in a release.